


In Which There is a Cunning Plan, a Rescue and a Cake

by karrenia_rune



Category: Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie
Genre: Gen, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Rescue, Yuletide2011, cakes, hostages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-25
Updated: 2011-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-28 03:06:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/303037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tinkerbell is captured by Captain Hook, again, and this time Peter Pan knows that he must come up with an unorthodox means by which to rescue her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which There is a Cunning Plan, a Rescue and a Cake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LostWendy1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostWendy1/gifts).



Disclaimer: Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie (1860–1937). A mischievous boy who can fly and who never ages, Peter Pan, spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with mermaids, Native Americans, fairies, pirates, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside of Neverland.

 

"In Which there is a Cunning Plan, a Rescue and and Cake"

 

By now Peter thought he’d become more or less accustomed to Tinkerbell getting captured by Captain Hook and his crew of nefarious pirates. What he could not quite understand was why she simply had not found a way around the various traps he laid for her. A part of him knew that in her heart more often than that she ‘allowed’ herself to be captured knowing that he would always come to her rescue.

He did not really mind that, from the very beginning of their friendship there had always been that implicit understanding between them. An understanding that did not require words but it was there, nonetheless.  
So as stood perched atop the limbs of the big grandfather oak at that had grown up and around the tree house that was home to himself and his Lost Boys Peter Pan primed himself to deliver a grandiose speech; a speech that would outline in no uncertain terms his cunning plan to rescue Tinkerbell.

Peter sucked in a deep lungful of the crisp, cool spring air and let in and out for a few moments while he gazed out over the upturned faces looking in his direction’ and then, satisfied that he had their undivided attention,announced.  
“As you all know by now one of our own has been taken captive by Captain Hook and to avoid beating around the proverbial bush, I intend to get her back!”

The Lost Boys cheered and several of them waved whatever tools and weapons that they had to hand when Peter called a general meeting. Most of them had no idea what was in the offing only that a kind of tension had been brewing of late; one that they somehow sensed without knowing exactly how that felt equivalent to the lull before the storm.

In the close quarters of their tree house home such things had a way of getting around and the rumor mill had it that some kind of adventure was in the offing.  
It was also noted that Peter was gone more often than late and some of the younger boys had been tasked with gathering ingredients that were not generally needed, such as sulfur, guano etc.

“Something is up,” they whispered among themselves as they assembled at the foot of the big branch of the grandfather oak and prepared to listen to whatever Peter had to tell them.

Peter waited long enough and said. “You see, the thing of it is, Hook knows me, he knows how I think and he knows what Tinkerbell means to me, to all of us.”

“We’re with you!” they boys shouted.

Peter felt m moisture well up in the corners of his eyes and a constriction in his chest that had nothing to do with worry but with a genuine appreciation for their support and determination. He reached up to wipe away the wetness and continued. “With that being said, he’ll be expecting a frontal attack, and I would hate to disappoint him, wouldn’t.

“If we’re not going in the front,” Nibs remarked,” then that only leaves the back.”

“Exactly and here’s the catch, as you may or may not have noticed I’ve asked you to gather certain unusual supplies, and we’re going to use them now.”

“What could we possibly use sulfur and bat poo, for,” one of the twins asked while his brother made a rather comical grimace; they had been given the task of gathering and prepping the gooey white paste and storing it in ceramic containers.

Peter grinned, flashing a set of white teeth and then replied. “Why, we’re going to bake a cake, a very special kind of cake and then we’re going to give it to Hook.”

“I take it’s some kind of diversion?”

“Yeah, while one group is doing that,” Peter added with a wink and a smile. “Another group will sneak in the back and rescue Tink.” He crossed her arms over his chest and let out a resounding crew of satisfaction because it was such a simple yet cunning plan and it would work; he was certain of it.  
***

Meanwhile aboard Hook’s pirate ship he knelt on the floor of his cabin in front of a table where an unlit lantern stood upon a wooden table. The lantern itself was not currently being used for its intended purpose, to give illumination, but there was light inside of it nonetheless. And there was a perfectly logical explanation for that, because he had used it to hold the fairy Tinkerbell captive.

She was tiny, no bigger than the fingernail of his pinky, but no matter how tiny she might be she wore an expression of mingled disgust and defiance on her delicate features.

“You’ll never succeed,” she taunted him. “Peter will rescue for me, just you wait and see,” she stated. “He always does.”

“Oh, I know, my dear,” Hook replied. “In fact, I’m counting on it.”

She sniffed and figuring that at this point she had neither nothing to gain or lose by taunting him said: “You never learn, do you?”

“Learn what?” he asked.

“You’ll never win, because Peter will always beat you, either in a fair fight or by out-smarting you. So why not spare yourself the embarrassment and let me go already?”

“My dear, my dear,” Hook crooned. “That will never happen and do you know why? No, then I will tell you, this constant undeclared war between myself and Pan has become something of ritual. I could no more cease then he could.”

For her part Tinkerbell only responded with a shrug and sat back on the floor of the lantern. She knew that Pan would win the day no matter what delusions of grandeur Captain Hook might have held.

Taking her lack of response as sullenness and or plain stubbornness to reveal the secret location of the Lost Boys hideout, Hook continued to talk to himself. “We have a kind of tally system which I fully intend to collect own, for I am due some recompense.”  
***  
In tiny hollowed-out shell boats one group of lost boys armed with slingshots and quarterstaffs crossed the shallow water of the strait where the Jolly Roger had been beached while undergoing repairs.

Another group approaching from the landward said carried several baskets covered with a red and white checkered cloth. Tied around their waists were wooden containers of the secret ingredient, something Peter called gunpowder.

Peter accompanied the former group instead of flying in and over as he normally would have done. The plan required that nothing untoward happen to give warning to Hook or his crew, for if it did, any of them would instantly sound the alarm and then the entire enterprise would be endangered.

At the moment the distinct sound of an owl hooting was heard, and by that token Peter knew that the first group had reached the ship and were climbing up the guy ropes and up and over the side of the ship and onto the deck.

He hooted back at a slightly higher register signaling that his own group was ready and waiting for the diversion to cover the noise of their own arrival.

He and his group arrived at the rear of the ship and sunk aboard. Peter took it upon himself to scout for any deckhands that might have been lurking about or posted as sentries. Satisfied that there were none of the above he motioned his group forward.

They responded with aclairty and crept silently through the passageways and down the ladders to Hook’s personal quarter, for Peter figured rightly that Hook was both vain-glorious and paranoid enough that he would be unable to trust anyone else to guard his valuable prisoner.

They burst into the room, this noise covered by the commotion going on to the portside, and Peter could not help exchanging a quick satisfied grin with Nibs and they crept into Hook’s quarters where by the lambent glow that lit the room with a dim light they knew that they had found Tinkerbell.  
Nibs nodded and replied. “At this rate, we’ll be done and out of here by suppertime. Speaking of food will the exploding cakes really work?”

“Of course they will, Peter replied. “Did you bring the matches and the candles?”

“What do you take me for?” Nibs replied testily. “Yeah, so no worries.”

“Tink!” Peter softly cried.

“Over here, Peter!” she said. “I knew that you would come for me.”

“As if there was any doubt?” he replied and then quickly crossed the distance between the door and the wooden table and began to unlatch the brass fastenings that held her captive with his nimble and slender fingers.  
Meanwhile Nibs and his helpers were quickly and quietly removing the gunpowder-laced pastries out of the covered baskets and placing them in strategic locations around the room.

“We’re done here, boss,” Nibs announced.

“Good, I’ve got Tinkerbell, and we are out of here!” he crowed.  
****  
Hook, watching from the stern of his ship at the departing backs of the Lost Boys could only fume and curse and shake his fist when it suddenly occurred to him that it might have been a diversion. He hurled his cutlass at his bosum Smee and abruptly turned on his heel. He made for his personal quarters in order to check on his prisoner. The moment he arrived he could see at a glance that the lantern in which she had been held captive was unlit and untenanted. If he had been fuming and cursing only a moment ago, it escalated. He hated be upstaged and by Peter Pan of all people.

It was only as he forced himself to calm down enough to get a decent look around the place that was when he noticed the pastries that had appeared in his cabin. “What the deuce?”

He bent over to examine one of them, it gave off a unique aroma of blended spices and sugar and raspberry jam, and other odder but no less unpleasant scent; one that could not place. It was a familiar scent, one that he should have been able to instantly recognize but for the life of him could not quite place.

On the unlit candle placed in the center of the cake were the words: “For Hook, eat in good health.”

Hook figured that Pan must be getting soft and so thrust his hook hand into one of the cakes and snagged off a piece and then put it in his mouth. It tasted just as savory as it had smelled and he figured that though he may have lost this round, he still had not lost the battle.  
That was when Smee tapped on the door and he uttered a terse, “Enter.”

Smee looked around at the all the cakes with unlit candles and with boxes of matches lying beside each of them and figured that they it was a party of sorts, began to light the candles.

It was only after the first of the many began to smolder and give off an aroma that was distinctly less pleasant than spices and sugar and candied fruit was then Hook finally recognized that scent that he had been unable to identify earlier. “Gunpowder! Darn you, Peter Pan!” he shouted shaking a fist. “I will get you for this!”

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a Yuletide 2011 Treat


End file.
